Zac & Abby Sunderland, Jessica Waston & Mike Perham

In July of last year, Zac Sunderland, a 17-year-old from Southern California, became the youngest person to sail around the world alone.   He held that tile for only about a month as the British 17 year old sailor, Mike Perham, who was a few months younger than Zac, completed his circumnavigation.  Both Zac and Mike made at least one stop along the way around the globe.

Then after a somewhat inauspicious start, sixteen year old Jessica Watson of Queensland, Australia set off in September to attempt a non-stop circumnavigation which would earn her the title of the youngest person to sail non-stop around the world.  She is making good progress, reaching thehalf-way point and rounding Cape Horn about two weeks ago.

Now Abby Sunderland, also 16 has set sail from Marina Del Ray in California in her attempt to earn the  title of youngest non-stop circumnavigator.  If the name sounds familiar, it should. Abby is Zac Sunderland’s younger sister.

While these teenagers appear young to be facing the open ocean, there is nothing new about teenagers running away to sea.  In 1875, Fred Harlow was about the age of these sailors when he ran off to sea, which he would later write about in The Making of a Sailor or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger. The times may have changed, but the lure of the sea has not.

Abby Sunderland sets course on a record